Book Excerpt: ‘Empire of Illusion’

Posted on Jul 30, 2009

Corkrey enters the audition room. The judges—Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Kara DioGuardi—are seated behind a long table in front of a window. They each have large red tumblers with “Coca-Cola” printed on them. They seem charmed by her exuberant presence. She sings “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” from Show Boat. Her performance is charismatic and quirky. She improvises freely and assuredly with the rhythms and notes of the song, beaming the whole time.

“Because you’re different,” continues Cowell sternly. “You are one of the few I’m going to remember. I like you, I like your voice, I mean seriously good voice. I loved it.”

“You’re an interesting girl. You have a glow about you, you have an incredible face,” says DioGuardi.

The judges vote.

“Absolutely yes,” says Cowell.

“Love you,” says Abdul.

“Yes!” says DioGuardi.

“One hundred percent maybe,” smiles Jackson.

“You’re goin’ to Hollywood!” cheers DioGuardi as the inspirational rock music swells.

“YESS!!! Thank you, guys!” Corkrey screams with delight. She runs out of the audition room into a crowd of her cheering friends. The music plays as she dances down the street waving her large yellow ticket, the symbol of her success.

Celebrities, who often come from humble backgrounds, are held up as proof that anyone, even we, can be adored by the world. These celebrities, like saints, are living proof that the impossible is always possible. Our fantasies of belonging, of fame, of success and of fulfillment, are projected onto celebrities. These fantasies are stoked by the legions of those who amplify the culture of illusion, who persuade us that the shadows are real. The juxtaposition of the impossible illusions inspired by celebrity culture and our “insignificant” individual achievements, however, eventually leads to frustration, anger, insecurity, and invalidation. It results, ironically, in a self-perpetuating cycle that drives the frustrated, alienated individual with even greater desperation and hunger away from reality, back toward the empty promises of those who seduce us, who tell us what we want to hear. We beg for more. We ingest these lies until our money runs out. And when we fall into despair we medicate ourselves, as if the happiness we have failed to find in the hollow game is our deficiency. And, of course, we are told it is.

Human beings become a commodity in a celebrity culture. They are objects, like consumer products. They have no intrinsic value. They must look fabulous and live on fabulous sets. Those who fail to meet the ideal are belittled and mocked. Friends and allies are to be used and betrayed during the climb to fame, power and wealth. And when they are no longer useful they are to be discarded. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s novel about a future dystopia, people spend most of the day watching giant television screens that show endless scenes of police chases and criminal apprehensions. Life, Bradbury understood, once it was packaged and filmed, became the most compelling form of entertainment.

The moral nihilism of celebrity culture is played out on reality television shows, most of which encourage a dark voyeurism into other people’s humiliation, pain, weakness, and betrayal. Education, building community, honesty, transparency, and sharing are qualities that will see you, in a gross perversion of democracy and morality, voted off a reality show. Fellow competitors for prize money and a chance for fleeting fame elect to “disappear” the unwanted. In the final credits of the reality show America’s Next Top Model, a picture of the woman expelled during the episode vanishes from the group portrait on the screen. Those cast aside become, at least to the television audience, non-persons. Life, these shows teach, is a brutal world of unadulterated competition. Life is about the personal humiliation of those who oppose us. Those who win are the best. Those who lose deserve to be erased. Compassion, competence, intelligence, and solidarity with others are forms of weakness. And those who do not achieve celebrity status, who do not win the prize money or make millions in Wall Street firms, deserve to lose. Those who are denigrated and ridiculed on reality television, often as they sob in front of the camera, are branded as failures. They are responsible for their rejection. They are deficient.

In an episode from the second season of the CBS reality game show Survivor, cast members talk about exceptional friendships they have made within their “tribe,” or team. Maralyn, also known as Mad Dog, is a fifty-two-year-old retired police officer with a silver crew cut and a tall, mannish build. She is sunning herself in a shallow stream, singing “On the Street Where You Live.” Tina, a personal nurse and mother, walks up the stream toward her.

“Sing it, girl! I just followed your voice.”

“Is it that loud?”

“Maralyn, she’s kind of like our little songbird, and our little cheerleader in our camp,” Tina says in an interview. “Maralyn and I have bonded, more so than I have with any of the other people. It might be our ages, it might just be that we kind of took up for one another.”

We see Tina and Maralyn swimming and laughing together in the river.

“Tina is a fabulous woman,” says Maralyn in an interview. “She is a star. I trust Tina the most.”

Maralyn and Tina’s tribe, Ogakor, loses an obstacle course challenge, in which all the tribe members are tethered together. If one person falls, the entire team is slowed. Mad Dog Maralyn falls several times, and is hauled back to her feet by Colby, the “cowboy” from Texas.

Because they lost, the members of Ogakor must vote off one of their tribe members. The camera shows small groups of twos and threes in huddled, intense discussion.

“The mood in the camp is a very sad mood, but it’s also a very strategic mood,” says Tina. “Everyone’s thinking, ‘Who’s thinking what?’ ”

The vote is taken at dusk, in the “tribal council” area. It resembles a set from Disney World’s Adventureland. A ring of tall stone monoliths is stenciled with petroglyphs. It is lit by torches. A campfire blazes in the center of the ring. Primitive drums and flutes are heard.

The Ogakor team arrives at dusk, each holding a torch. They sit before Survivor’s host, Jeff Probst.

“So I just want to talk about a couple of big topics,” says Probst, who wears a safari outfit. “Trust. Colby, is there anyone here that you don’t trust, wouldn’t trust?”

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

By Chris Hedges

Nation Books, 240 pages

“Sure,” says Colby.

“Tell me about that.”

“Well, I think that’s part of the game,” says Colby. “It’s way too early to tell exactly who you can trust, I think.”

“What about you, Mitchell? Would you trust everyone here for forty-two days?” asks Probst. “I think the motto is, ‘Trust no one,’ ” answers Mitchell. “I have a lot of faith in a good number of these people, but I couldn’t give 100 percent of my trust.”

“What about you, Mad Dog?” asks Probst. “These all your buddies?”

Maralyn looks around at her team members. “Yes,” she says unequivocally. “Yes. And, Jeff, I trust with my heart.”

Chris appears to have googled “positive psychology” and thrown together an assortment of unrelated and in some cases, radically opposed facts. Chris cites “the law of attraction” as a major component of positive psychology. The “law of attraction” is a metaphysical theory completely outside the realm of contemporary science, and is frequently mentioned by leading exponents of positive psychology as the very opposite of everything they are trying to do.

Contrary to what is often reported in the popular media, Seligman, Lyubomirsky, Csikszentmihayli and other scholars are quite cautious in their scientific articles (they may, admittedly, not always be as cautious when speaking with the media). They repeatedly make comments to the effect that they wish to do no more than balance a century of more of emphasis in psychiatry and clinical psychology on pathology. Leftists who sympathize with Chris have often taken clinical psychology and psychiatry to task for focusing on individual ills rather than understanding individual suffering in the context of societal ills (such as corporate domination and exploitation). Now, Seligman (the “founder” of positive psychology) and his colleagues wish to examine not only individual happiness, but the traditional virtues that researchers have found to be common in wisdom traditions in Eastern, Western, African and other cultures for thousands of years, those that emphasize not mindless acceptance of majority views, but wisdom, discernment, compassion, courage, following one’s individual conscience no matter what the consequences, etc. And they hope one day that positive psychology will mature in such a way that such virtues and strengths may develop in the institutions of society – our business, educational, medical, and perhaps even our political structures.

I’ve saved Chris’ article as it is such a good parody of what people think about positive psychology rather than what it actually is.

My attention was caught by Hedge’s use of the word “Spectacle” in the subtitle of his book “Empire of Illusion” and so I read (somewhat quickly) through Hedge’s chapter looking for a reference to Guy Debord’s book dealing with “Illusion” titled “Society of the Spectacle”. I was disappointed not to find any reference to Debord’s book and hope it was just because i read too quickly. If anyone who has not read Debord’s book wants to pursue Hedge’s chapter further, I highly recommend the book. And the whole book is about the length of Hedge’s one chapter!

I think Chris Hedges is right, but as in his columns here on TD about this issue, he tends to go overboard about the evils of pop culture and to blame the victims (believing that their indoctrination is hopeless and that we now have millions of mindless dupes wandering around America).

Ok, there are a lot of dupes wandering around America, but does that mean that their indoctrination is permanent?

I don’t think it is, its just indoctrination. As soon as the truth gets out, as soon as we start to demand change from the Media, when we create our own sources for information,

better yet, when we take the perpetrators of misinformation to task! make real penalties for spreading lies and misinformation to the American people.

C.H. nails’em twixt the eyes. Geee….and who the heck can AFFORD all that elective plastic surgery? The retarded spewing out of money….with no regard for the work & sweat it takes 90% of humanity just to survive month to month is repugnant. But….that was the mantra of the Bush/Cheney corporate machine: utterly fake window dressing, twisting the very symbols & values they manipulate & sell via the rivers of corporate money….basically accounting writeoffs….which the TV/Radio media now sucks up like crack rock. It reminds me of the old truism that an forthright enemy is preferable to demons passing themselves off as religious icons. What there is is a very sophisticated inversion of good & evil.

Your comment: “The point of simulation and spectacle is not diversion from some diabolical elitist plot as Hedges intimates. Simulation and spectacle are not a means to an end. The medium is the message, as McLuhan famously said.”

Assuming your contention is accurate, and “the medium is the message” what is the message?

If in fact, there is no “elist plot” yet only as YOU assume there exists “This trace of Utopianism in Hedges’ work is what makes me distrust the soundness of his thinking. One has the feeling that he’s got an agenda beyond the social observation, an agenda that can cloud his judgement”. How is it that “we” can establish that YOU do not have an “agenda”?

Also, your comment:“it is important to remember that ultimately, both reality and meaning are social constructs, not absolutes. Every society, wether modern or primitive, Marxist or capitalist, will insist upon its celebrities.”

REALITY is not a “social construct”. While it may not or may BE considered a social construt, reality itself is NOT a social construct. Some realities ARE absolutes (or do you deny the earth revolves around the sun…?). You confuse reality with subjectivity and even more plausibly with relativity. Your claim that all societies “insist” upon celebrities, is also debatable.

All this would be indeed be shocking if we did not see the same stupidity, vulgarity and cruelty repeated throughout history. Man’s circumstances change, but not his essence. Schopenhauer tells us that intelligent people have always said the same things and so too have the stupid.

It is small wonder that sex so dominates the landscape when a human exists solely for genetic replication. We cannot tell the truth because the truth is unbearable. What shall we say to a person? That they reside on a rock, molten at the core, hurtling around a fireball, that on this rock’s crust a thin mold has appeared and in this mold knowing, thinking beings have emerged? That the function of these knowing organisms is to battle countless others for food, water and air, the purpose of which is to breed another generation to do the same?
That they are temporary storage units for DNA and an ‘oh by the way’ that everything will be vaporized in the End?

Every person is born on death row, time and place of execution unknown.

We are, as the Latins were wont to say, ‘Nervis alienis mobile lignum’ wooden puppets moved by extraneous forces.

Look at how relaxed a tomato is in its natural environment. A human does exactly what a tomato does but the tomato is in bliss because it does not need to make things up.

A person who thanks those that ‘brought him into this world’ is like a Ford car that waves goodbye and smiles as it leaves the factory.

Jackie9—according to all the reports I’ve seen, the program is voluntary, and the person shipped out must have somewhere to go where identifiable persons will provide shelter and assistance.

New York City has been putting the homeless out of sight for some time. Many of them are sent to the Atlantic-Bedford Armory in Brooklyn because the nearby neighborhoods, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, are deemed low-class enough for them. The plan of shipping them somewhere where relatives or others will take care of them seems far more humane than warehousing them in large public buildings in depressed industrial zones.

NYC, a place that has become the ultimate disney-reality show setting, is sending the homeless off with one-way tickets to whatever relatives will take them. I don’t for a minute believe this is for their benefit. It seems sinister to me, a way to further manipulate statistics for crime and homelessness and to “get them off the island” so they won’t have to be seen or felt by anyone living here, or more importantly, the tourists.

It looks like the recent chemically mediated demise of Michael Jackson, the BADdest “celebrity” of them all (aided and abbetted of course by papered professional experts licensed to write and administer prescription DRUGS), is a near-perfect predictor for the looming fate of homo domesticus en masse, inmates relentlessly upping their already heavy dosages of techno-soporifics and religiossified analgesics in a vain effort to deaden the increasingly unbearable pain of their captivity. The lucky ones, like Kenny Rogers’ gambler, “....‘ll die in their sleep.”

The “profit” still to be wrung out of their terminal misery, however, is sure to limit the “lucky” to damned few. Even those slots, in-fact, may already be filled.

Hedges has a compelling writing style all his own, but these ideas are, for the most part, diluted versions of those elucidated 25 years ago in ‘Fatal Strategies” and “In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities” by Jean Baudrillard.

Baudrillard, a philosopher, postulated that constant simulations of reality in the media had finished off the notion of reality itself, and that useful meaning is always negated through its inevitable commodification. Hedges, a political animal, uses those ideas to suggest that somewhere, there is reality and meaning, and we could experience it if only our political masters stepped out of the way.

This trace of Utopianism in Hedges’ work is what makes me distrust the soundness of his thinking. One has the feeling that he’s got an agenda beyond the social observation, an agenda that can cloud his judgement. The point of simulation and spectacle is not diversion from some diabolical elitist plot as Hedges intimates. Simulation and spectacle are not a means to an end. The medium is the message, as McLuhan famously said.

Hedges may mourn the death of reality and the loss of meaning in the commodity society, but it is important to remember that ultimately, both reality and meaning are social constructs, not absolutes. Every society, wether modern or primitive, Marxist or capitalist, will insist upon its celebrities. There will always be those who are held up as models and are thus perceived and treated as charmed by the rest. And this will always lead to intensifying competition to attain this moral and often sexual duty-free zone. It’s a survival tactic scrawled like graffiti upon our DNA.

Exalted social status, and the fierce, even deadly competition to achieve it, is not unique to capitalism. This is why Hedges is barking up an empty tree here. And while Alain de Botton is no doubt correct to assert that status anxiety has increased by multiple factors in the last century, I doubt if many would trade its pitfalls and uncertainties for the daily struggles against the cold and famine that characterized life for the masses before the industrial revolution that gave birth to hypercapitalism.

Apart from a few untested theoretical alternatives, such as Hakim Bey’s Temporary Autonomous Zone, it appears that all roads lead to the same place. And from the outskirts of town, where us outliers gather around our campfires to watch and wonder, it’s easy to see who’s coming, and who’s going.

It occurred to me about 15 years ago that my place in my society was no longer that of ‘citizen’ but had become that of consumer. I wasn’t sure how it had happened but it was clear that the political infrastructure was not even pretending any longer to be accountable to the citizenry but had passively acquiesed to the idea that a ravenous consumer culture was the only thing that could keep the engine running and corporate ruthlessness was the most viable means of establishing such a culture.

I could not agree more that the citizenry is being very successfully anaesthetized by the extremely powerful and relentless media. In some ways it is not unlike the ghastly womb created in the film The Matrix. Are we really awake? Are we sure?

By C. Curtis Dillon, July 30 at 8:46 am
• “The concern I have (and I think Chris does as well) centers on the effort required to reverse this trend. Is America truly gone and the people so anesthetized that there is no way to turn them around? Is the cult of celebrity so deeply ingrained in the collective psyche that no amount of “true reality” can bring them back? If that is true, than the few of us who are still “awake” will be treated to the spectacle of our beloved country swirling around the drain and disappearing forever. That would be a real tragedy.”http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/
item/20090730_book_excerpt_empire_of_illusion/?ln
This is the concluding paragraph to an excellent post by C. Curtis Dillion, one that I hope to share.
Meantime, just musing on these questions, I suspect that those of us who are still “awake” have already been treated to the spectacle of our beloved country swirling around the drain and disappearing forever.
Thing is, how ‘beloved’ is our country really? Sometimes I have to question our unquestioning belief in that concept of the US as a beloved democracy, because it certainly didn’t start out that way. The reality of this country’s origins (specifically the Instiution of slavery) belies some elements of that ideology.
Be that as it may, I don’t want to believe that America is ‘truly gone’ but I accept that the America that we’re talking about over the past several decades is probably gone, but I don’t think it has to be a tragedy. It will depend on what we’re able to fashion out of the realities of the 21st Century. In other words, reversing the trend. I don’t know if that’s doable or not. Depends on how many of us are still awake and willing to contribute to the effort.

I admit the reality of that doesn’t look good, because the cult of celebrity and Alice-in-Wonderland mentality IS very ingrained. The Era of Oprah symbolizes just how ingrained.

But…there’s hope, and this work by Chris Hedges is part of the effort. There are otherefforts as well..

We punted our responsibilities? Most of us were never in the game to begin with. Here is a suggestion, read anything ever written by Noam Chomsky, please! I suggest you start with Manufacturing Consent and move forward from there. And to the commentor who mentioned that Oprah; The above mentioned Mr. Chomsky asked his wife to go back to school and finish her degree so she could support their family in case he lost his job at MIT and was sent to prison for speaking out about the lies concerning the Vietnam War! And this was the mid 1960’s mind you. Oprah supports Obama and oh what a brave woman she is. All $425 million of her estimated worth! Please!!!! You need to pick a more inspirational figure head. George Carlin used to say “everything was fine until the politicians and the high priests took control! I am nearly 50 years old and still undoing the shackles placed upon my mind by the church, public school system, corporate despots, the military and last but certainly not least the boob tube. there is a button marked “BRIGHTNESS” but it does’nt seem to be working! God bless you all! And keep fighting the good fight!

The corporate-government-religiosity,CGR, is and orchestrated chorus which has forged Americans into being NARCISSISTIC-CONSUMERIST-GLUTTONS whom rely on external phenomena for their reality. It is the One World System, New World Order, of the anti-Christ as defined in Biblical terms.The celebrity evangelists are the agents of the anti-Christ. The anti-Christ is not against Christ but an entity pretending to be Christ using false doctrines to insult, calling them foul names and demean their congregations of fools and then beg the fools for money and they give it to them. According to the bible over 90% of those claiming to be Christians are actually being taught to worship the Anti-Christ which relies on the superficial illusions of reality based on external factors. This also provides the allure of Christianity with the false doctrines of “I’m not responsible, god told me to do it and/or Satan made me do it. The coalition of government-business-churches institutionalizes the false doctrines of"I’m not responsible…...” which gives it legitimacy to society.

Sad to say, these are the very people who tell you they are “not political,” as if choosing sides would endanger their aspirations.

Incidentally, I would not cast Oprah in this mold. While there is an aspect of her programming that reaches out to women who are insecure and not self-aware, she has encouraged an army who would be reading romance novels to take on much heavier fare, such as literary novels and books about spirituality (maybe you don’t like these, but they sure beat Left Behind. And can you imagine Springer suggesting that anyone read a book?) I think serious reading is an excellent counter to all this celebrity junk, and I assume you do, too, since you keep turning out these thoughtful books.Also, Oprah reveals her own vulnerabilities rather than hide behind a mask like Springer and all those televangelists. Finally, Oprah lost tons of followers, many of whom thought she didn’t identify black, when she endorsed Obama. That took some courage, I think.

Now we’re up against the pressures to turn the Obamas into just another celebrity family. The day before his health care address, I caught an anchor and a correspondent on MSNBC trash-talking for probably five minutes about the baggy jeans he wore to throw out a baseball. I hope he keeps wearing them.

The Sensationaism of Racism over the Gates/Crwley incidence and the fanfare surrounding the ‘Birth ceritficate’ controversy are both distraction way from the Crimes of Cheney and his Congressional enablers.
“Is President Obama a Legitimate President?”- deflects away as to the question “Was Cheney a Legitmate President?”
What also is blatantly obvious is the Question- Are citizens obliged to acquiesce to the Will of a Public Servant? Not merely at the Local law enforcement level, but at a Federal Gov’t level. Prof Gates was expected to willing forfeit his rights as a taxpaying homeowner, to the whimes of the ‘authority’ figure. In a bigger picture, isn’t that insinuating that the American people should not question the decisions and actions of their “leaders”- aka stop bitching about that Domestic wiretapping?
Why are is the Repug Party so willing to show their hand on racist ideologies? Willing to ignite the country into a social war over race relations? This is a Huge Card to play- even for Repugs. Willing to be seen as the Party of White Supremists? Because the alternative is far more detrimental- The Party of Treason, Abuse of Power, War crimes and crimes against Humanity.
These Congressional ‘supporters’ of the ‘Birthers’ and the “apologists” are working these shiny objects to distract the public from their complicity in High Crimes.
This is What Repugs Do everytime they face exposure on a more egregious transgression- throwing shadows.
The Repugs would rather be considered Racists, then deemed Traitors or Criminals.

Psalms 49:16-20 Be not afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. Though, while he lives, he counts himself happy, and though a man gets praise when he does well for himself, he will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never more see the light. Man cannot abide in his pomp, he is like the beasts that perish.

Corporatism (another name for fascism I’m told) seeks to mold us into willing, obedient slaves. The cult of celebrity keeps us enthralled and anesthetized to the rape and plunder of our lives by the “ruling class”. Of course, there is no royalty in this class, just a group of crooks and swindlers who have achieved enough economic power to directly influence our political and economic systems for their continued benefit. This process has been going on since day one of our republic. The difference now is the amount of control they exercise. In the past, they did not have the resources to influence all aspect of our society but that has changed in the age of Reagan. The rules and regulations passed to frustrate their domination have been systematically removed so we now have huge media conglomerates controlled by the same people who run our major banks and corporations. They have also procured and distorted our political process so it is no longer representative of our desires. The fact that so many still believe our country is on the right track is testament to how complete their domination has become.

However, the ultimate blame for this state of affairs rests with us, the citizens of America. We punted our responsibilities as members of a free society. Democracy requires more from us than voting when the urge moves us. It demands that we are involved and informed. Fox news is not how that happens. We have to read and ask questions. We have to engaged by attending town hall meetings and political events. We have to force our way into the dialog by writing or phoning our representatives and demand that they listen to our concerns. It often means we have to join groups of similar-minded citizens to push our agenda. But we did none of these. And, because we have been such dismal failures as citizens of our democracy, the forces of corporatism and celebrity stepped into the void. They now control the dialog and drive the direction of America. Unfortunately, they are only interested in their own wealth and influence and are not concerned about the long-term impact of this self-interest on the rest of us. If the American ideal is destroyed, they will simply take their private jets somewhere else. That is how it always works.

The concern I have (and I think Chris does as well) centers on the effort required to reverse this trend. Is America truly gone and the people so anesthetized that there is no way to turn them around? Is the cult of celebrity so deeply ingrained in the collective psyche that no amount of “true reality” can bring them back? If that is true, than the few of us who are still “awake” will be treated to the spectacle of our beloved country swirling around the drain and disappearing forever. That would be a real tragedy.